I have had my wahoo heart rate monitor for several years. Does not seem to properly register heart rate even after replacing several batteries. Is it possible that it is time to buy a new one? What is the life expectancy of the wahoo heart rate monitor?
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I havenāt had any personal experience with Wahoo HRMs, but from other commenters it does seem to have at least some reliability issues.
If youāre still wanting to go the chest strap route, Iāve used both the Polar H9 and H10 and have had good experiences so far, but Iām only a couple years into using HRMs in general. Most reviews seem to indicate fairly good reliability/durability overall though.
The Garmin Pro is another comparable option, but strangely doesnāt appear to have a removable battery/sensor unit from the strap itself, whereas the Polar battery/sensor units are removable and the strap can be washed separately and easily replaced.
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Yeah, you lost me at āseveral yearsā @J-LW. I will tell you Iāve gone through three wahoo HRMās - got maybe 2 years out of each of them, and had connectivity issues on more than a few occasions.
I just switched to a Polar H10 last fall. Obviously durability is an open question, but I really like it, itās comfortable, very accurate, and I can use it for HRV as well.
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I used a Tickr for about three years without trouble until I accidentally ran it through the clothes washer in a jersey pocket! Then it still worked for about six more months, but started acting the way you describe. Iām trying a Coospo right now that is rechargeable. Working well for the first month!
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I think itās unstable. I have Tickr v.1 (five years),Tickr x v.2 + Elemnt Rival (one year) and now,
If you are still using the original strap, it might be worth buying a 3rd party replacement before throwing the electronics pod away. My original Wahoo strap died after about 18 months of daily use, I bought 2 off-brand replacements so I can have one in the wash and still use it.
My Tickr V1 is 4 years old and still works perfectly.
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Friends donāt let friends use TICKRs (specifically V2 chest ones).
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Yeah I didnāt consider the strap issue - good point.
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+1 on this. I have the V1 and working in another strap did the trick for me. I use both the H10 and the Tickr V1 and both have been reliable.
Thanks,
I just purchased a new strap on Amazon. I will try it out when it arrives on Saturday.
In the interim, I will try placing some Vaseline on the electrodes.
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Donāt use Vaseline, itās an insulator, lick them instead , saliva is a much better conductor.
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One thing I will highly recommend is WASH THE STRAP. Iāve found this greatly extends the life of the device as crud builds up and you just canāt simply remove it. This applies to any chest strao based HRM with a pod.
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IMO longevity of chest hrmās depends on how much you sweat. I gone through pretty much all of the makes over the last 15 years.
Now gone wahoo optical and no issues.
The salt in your sweat attacks the strap and speeds up corrosion etc. Washing it helps among other mentioned problems.
If you want to check if your strap is working correctly you can use a multimeter and measure the resistance.
If it is sub 500 Ī© everything is perfect. if it is well in the kĪ© range you should replace it. The farther out you are from the connector the slightly higher the resistance gets.
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@Thomas Thatās really useful to know, thank you.
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Agree! Thatās the point.
FWIW, my 14 year old Garmin traditional strap is ticking fine. The transmitter and electrodes are all plastic with no intervening fabric or snaps. Their newer āDeluxeā designs with snaps and fabric electrodes def are not as reliable. That said, Iām currently using a Polar Verity Sense optical HRM after I had three successive Scosche optical HRMs die in short order.
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I tried a Scosche 24-hour optical HRM as it was one of the only options that transmitted real-time HRV, but the battery life was only around half of what was claimed, and the HRV was way off from my Polar H9 or H10 (as much as 50% to 200% - very inconsistent).
Itād be nice if Polar had an optical sensor that transmitted real-time HRV like the H9/H10 chest straps do.
My problem is that my Tickr will go several months measuring heart rate accurately then go bonkers. Like tonight, starts out pretty much matching my Fitbit then after about 10 mins my measured heart rate starts to drop will stay low then rise up again to match my Fitbit. While a chest strap is supposed to be more accurate my perceived exertion matches my Fitbit. Customer support has been great. I brought this reoccurring problem to their attention and over the course of a couple of years they have sent me two replacement Tickrs. But I donāt think thatās the problem. Frankly I donāt understand how something with no moving parts can go bad. I run water on my strap after each indoor ride. I use Systm with a Headwind fan. I connect using ant+ and I run Systm using a Windows 10 computer plugged directly into the modem. I am going to try turning off my pcās Bluetooth to eliminate any possible interference.
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It might be the seal on the battery compartment cap. I found one that would get sweat in it on a regular basis. Maybe a more robust method of sealing the battery compartment is needed.
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